The House of the Red Flower
by Masamora Kasaite
Summary: What starts out as a simple date between two childhood friends turns into a nightmare of epic proportions as the legendary Cave Story makes its way into the world of humans and turns their lives upside-down forever.


House of the Red Flower

Pt I: The Disease

"C'mon, Dante! We're gonna get cut off!"

I sprinted after Toroko, but I just couldn't keep up. Her slender frame somehow possessed more strength than mine, and she kept expanding the gap between us. Running along one of the most traveled roads in town, there was surprisingly little traffic. It seemed everyone was at our destination: the mall.

"Toroko, slow down!" I cried.

Toroko glanced back at me over her shoulder and replied, "What? I can't hear you from so far away!" I gritted my teeth and pushed my body to its limit, accelerating at a rapid pace. Toroko looked back and saw me gaining ground, but kept at a steady speed.

I finally caught up to her and slowed down to conserve the small amount of energy I had left. Heaving and wheezing, I gave her a glare to show my irritation, but couldn't hold it steady when our eyes made contact. I never can keep an angry or irritated expression of any sort when I look her in the eye.

"You… could have… slowed down… you know," I sputtered between huge breaths.

"Yeah, I could have," she replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "But what's the point in a race if you let the opponent catch you?"

We began to slow as our ten-kilometer run came to an end. The gigantic superstore blocked a full eighty-degree view of the horizon, and we hadn't even reached the parking lot.

"Wow, they really expanded," Toroko said, her bright pink eyes staring off into the distance. "I've never seen a building that big in my life."

"Not even the World Trade Center?" I pried, trying to get her to look at me again. Finding ways to look into her eyes is one of my hobbies. She punched me in the arm. "Ah! Hey, what was that for?"

"For being a smartass."

"What? You never punch me for being a…" Toroko's expression was almost too funny to look at. "Okay, you do, but not that hard!"

"You're the one who made the bad joke. Now, let's go in already. I'm starving." She took off again, her long, pink hair billowing out behind her.

"You're not gonna beat me this time!" I declared, sending every bit of my regained strength surging into my legs and exploding after her. Toroko glanced back for an instant, then leaned forward and put her full strength into running, but I flew past her. I stopped at the complex's front door and caught my breath while I waited for Toroko to get there.

When she did, she flopped on the pavement, panting and coughing. "I guess… that's what… I get… for racing… a sprinter… in a three-hundred," she choked out.

"Yes, it is," I returned, smirking. She stood up and punched me in the arm again. "Okay, okay, I get it!"

As we passed through the front door, I knew we were too late. Crowds were everywhere, making huge lines zigzagging every which way to fit inside the oversized, yet still too small, atrium of the mall. "Aw, man! Now there's no way we're gonna get in!" Toroko whined.

"Crap." That was the only word I could sum up the situation with.

"Well, now what?" Toroko asked, looking around at the mayhem. The crowds were so big that they blocked off the entrance to every store in the area.

"You wanna try a different exit?" I asked. "It might be less crowded."

"Might as well." We turned to leave, and as I spun on my heel my watch beeped twice, signaling the five o'clock mark. At that same instant, the lights of the mall went out, and I heard the drag and clang of a familiar sound: steel security bars.

A voice cried "What the hell?" from behind me, and it began an uproar that practically shook the place. Every single person was shouting profanities and asking nobody in particular.

Toroko looked back at me, puzzled. "What's going on…?" she asked, a worried note slipping into her tone.

I simply shrugged, unable to answer her question. "I dunno… Maybe someone stole something. I could see it happening in a place this crowded." She shrugged back, nodding in agreement. "Well, we might as well find a place to sit down for a bit. I'd hate to stand this whole t-"

I was cut off by a sharp crack emanating from the second floor of the complex, which was quickly succeeded by many screams of terror and the sound of many pairs of fleeing footsteps. The escalators nearby were suddenly flooded with a tide of crazed citizens, struggling to get past the crowds and off the floor. One man was even so insane as to jump over the side wall, landing on his legs and shattering his shins with a grotesque sound audible even from where we stood.

"What's going on? Why is everyone freaking out?" Toroko asked, her voice failing her as fear crept into her mind. She huddled up close to me, clutching my arm with both hands.

"Don't worry…" I said reassuringly. "They'll get it under control."

"I hope so…" she moped, leaning her head on my shoulders.

The ruckus had ended by then, but not because the people had calmed down. The second floor was… eerily quiet, not a single sound coming from its elevated balcony. The escalators were empty now, their occupants vanished without a trace. Disturbed by the silence, I wrapped my right arm around Toroko's shoulders and pulled her in close.

"Hey… Shouldn't we try and find a way out of here?" Toroko asked, her frightened expression turned up to face me.

"Yeah…" I replied half-heartedly, lost in deep thought. My mind was a swirling vortex of questions and guessed answers… 'What's going on? A robbery? A lockdown drill? Or maybe… something worse?' I shook my head clear of those thoughts and began to walk, Toroko clinging to my arm.

We started up the still escalators, our footsteps echoing throughout the great, silent expanse. My eyes darted back and forth, shadows seeming to jump out at me. The only thing that ran through my mind now was a primal instinct: get out. I was determined to get myself and Toroko out of that mall as quickly as possible.

Toroko stopped short, holding me back by my arm with a rigid grip. I turned back to face her, asking, "Hey, Toroko… What's up?" I pulled lightly, but she wouldn't move. "Toroko, come o-"

"Shh!" I'd never heard her make such a commanding noise in my life. "Listen!" she hissed. I stopped and focused on my hearing, but nothing caught my ears besides our nervous breathing and the massive beating of my heart.

"I don't hear anything…" I said quietly, looking around. "C'mon, we should move. We need to get o-" Then I heard it. A sharp, guttural growl, like a feral creature ready to pounce. My heart skipped a couple beats, and my breathing became ragged and shaky. "W…what the-? What was that?"

Toroko shoved herself against me, wrapping her arms around my waist, shivering in fright. "I don't know… but it doesn't sound friendly. We should get out of here. _Now_."

I grabbed her hand and ran, pulling her along as I put my sprinter's capabilities to use. She trailed along behind me, stumbling to keep up. "Slow down! I can't run that fa-" she yelled, cut off by the sudden motion of me swinging her up into my arms like a bride and ducking my head in a full-out sprint. The growl sounded again, somehow seeming even closer to us than before… as if its source were _following_ us.

I hung a sharp turn around the next corner, shouting "Hang on!" as I leapt onto and slid down the rail of a stairwell to the first floor. Tuck-and-rolling as I landed, I kept going, charging toward the only source of light nearby: a door to the outside world. I ran, thirty meters from it, then twenty, almost there… I slammed into the door, rebounding back off of it and landing my tailbone straight on the tile floor with a crushing blow. I shouted and dropped Toroko, rolling to my side and clutching my backside.

Toroko crawled over and knelt beside me, placing a hand on my side to calm my movements. "Dante! Oh, God, are you okay?" She moved my hand aside and began to feel around my tailbone, drawing a slight grunt from me.

"Hey, watch that hand!" I snapped, gingerly sitting up. "Me getting hurt isn't an excuse for you to be grabbin' around my a-"

A tile snapped on the floor above. It was close. _Really _close. Terror shook my body as I stood up again, scanning the stairs above me for the source of the sound. Toroko stood as well, ready to run if the need arose.

The sickening growl from before echoed from the second floor, resonating off the walls. This time, though, it seemed… louder. More plentiful. Like there was more than one of whatever made the noise…

"Toroko," I whispered. "We need to go. Whatever that is, it won't be pretty if it finds us." She nodded, and we sprinted toward the hallway into the main atruim, dodging around and hopping over furniture. The growls followed us, along with a cluster of disturbing snarls and a grotesque, horrifying roar, echoing down the hall like the sounds of an enraged bear through a cave.

The atrium came into view in front of us, the doorway at the end of the hall expanding gradually. We kept running, getting closer and closer, nearly there-

A shadow dropped from above the doorway, smashing a hole in the tile of the hall as its owner landed. I grabbed Toroko's arm and slammed my heel to the ground, screeching us to a stop, as the burly, heavy figure rose to its full stature, filling up the entire frame with its body obscured by the shadows.

Horror gripped me as I stared, paralyzed, at this giant, unseeable thing. Toroko jerked her arm, pulling me and shouting to run, but I couldn't hear her, couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't _breathe_. The thing took a step forward, and Toroko began pulling on me and screaming at the top of her lungs, hysterical. "DANTE, MOVE! PLEASE, WE HAVE TO RUN! SNAP OUT OF IT, DANTE!" And with that last sentence, she smacked me with the full force of her entire arm. I reeled and stumbled, releasing my grip on her arm and snapping back to reality.

The beast, disturbed by Toroko's cries, roared with a great moan and launched itself forward, flying through the air with incredible speed – straight at Toroko. "Toroko, run!" I shouted, sprinting toward her, but I was too slow; the creature smashed its full weight into her, knocking her to the ground, breathless and dazed.

I glanced around frantically, trying to find something, anything: a weapon fight with, a distraction of some sort, _anything_ to save Toroko… I saw it and dove, sliding across the smooth tile and snatching a flashlight from the floor. 'Not much, but it'll work,' I thought. I rolled to my feet and flicked the light on, aiming it right at the behemoth, hoping to blind it-

It was all I could do to draw in the ragged, horrified breath that I did when I saw what I was up against, my eyes widening dramatically. The thing that stood in front of me, hunched over my best friend, was like nothing I'd ever seen before…

It stood nearly ten feet tall, and its whole body was nearly six feet abroad. It was covered head to toe in white fur, and its giant muscled body shook as it breathed, ragged and crazy. Large, floppy ears drooped from its head, smacking against its back as its body heaved. Its fur was matted with a red, dried stain… I gasped as I realized it was blood. _Human_ blood. It grumbled and growled, shuffling and moving around over Toroko. Then it turned around, and I caught a glimpse of the worst part of it: its face.

Its eyes were stained completely blood red, the pupils slitted like a cat, their movements jerking around in a rapid, crazy manner. Its mouth frothed with foam, and it sported fangs big enough to put a hole through a person. Its hands were dominated by huge, grotesque claws, caked with blood and dirt.

Even worse, it… held Toroko's half-conscious body in its arms, and started to lumber off with her. The instant it moved, I snapped, rushing at it in a blind rage. "YAAAAAAAH!" I yelled, charging it with nothing but a flashlight. The thing turned in one swift movement and smashed its giant arm into me, launching me across the hall and through the dark window of a closed, empty shop. I hit the wall inside hard, rebounding out of a dent in the drywall, as I coughed out a splatter of blood with all the air in my body. I crumpled to the ground, paralyzed, as the thing turned and began to walk away. I let myself roll to my back and my head bobbed down, showing me the monstrosity that had nearly killed me, and with my dull, dead eyes I could see streams of tears flowing down Toroko's face as she cried out with all her heart…

"DANTEEEEEEEEE!"


End file.
